tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58595983822311995262018-03-18T04:17:28.151-07:00CR Magazine Margie Kuchinskinoreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-41853639744905453562017-07-07T14:04:00.004-07:002017-07-07T14:09:00.809-07:00This corporate responsibility milestone is a bit cheesy – in a good way <div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dave Armon</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Publisher,<i> CR Magazine</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0H3dx0ycf9k/WV_3OWfhEGI/AAAAAAAAADc/H-k0q-A631MLDxYB7YgGOmPDcaZrXgANgCLcBGAs/s1600/PizzaHUt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1600" height="249" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0H3dx0ycf9k/WV_3OWfhEGI/AAAAAAAAADc/H-k0q-A631MLDxYB7YgGOmPDcaZrXgANgCLcBGAs/s320/PizzaHUt.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not a big fan of milestone stories.&nbsp;&nbsp;The 10<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;anniversary of this or the silver celebration of that isn’t usually all that compelling.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But when I got a call the other day from Pizza Hut, I was impressed.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Turns out the folks behind the grilled cheese stuffed crust pie also do one helluva job feeding the hungry. And it isn’t a recent phenomenon.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Pizza Hut calculates that a system-wide program to donate pizzas and pasta that would otherwise be tossed into the rubbish has totaled 100 million tons of food since it launched in 1992.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“Pizza Hut was doing CSR before it was a term,” said Doug Terfehr, senior director of marketing and corporate communications for the Yum! Brands subsidiary, which was born in Witchata, Kan., in 1958. “This isn’t a bottom line spreadsheet exercise. We want to be part of the community.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Homeless shelters, orphanages and churches are among the recipients of impromptu pizza parties, said Terfehr.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When dough is approaching expiration, Pizza Hut trains its staffers to fire up some pies for donation instead of wasting perfectly good food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The cooked pizzas are co-mingled with blooper pizzas – food orders that were made in error, such as sausage-onion rather than the onion-olive pie the customer really wanted – and chilled in specially designed plastic bins.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">“It’s perfectly safe and good to eat, but rather than waste it we donate it,” said Terfehr, crediting a longstanding partnership with Food Donation Connection for ironing out the logistics so the effort can take place across thousands of restaurants and hundreds of franchisees.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As many as one in eight Americans face hunger, according to Feeding America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>More than 30 percent of food is sent to the waste stream rather than feeding those in need, according to the USDA. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In addition to being the Food Donation Connection’s largest donor, Pizza Hut also participates in the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, an industry coalition created by the National Restaurant Association and the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The alliance works to reduce the amount of food waste generated, increase food donations to those in need, and encourage recycling of unavoidable food waste to divert it from landfills.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">As our team at CR Magazine work on programming <a href="http://commitforum.com/">COMMIT!Forum,</a>our Oct. 11-12 gathering of corporate responsibility practitioners, the Pizza Hut 100 million tons food milestone brought fond memories of the farewell address given by Jonathan Blum, public affairs chief for Yum! Brands, who retired in 2016 after 23 years with the fast food giant and its Taco Bell unit.<br /><br />Blum, who also held the title of chief global nutrition officer, was credited for building the largest food and cash donation program with the United Nations World Food Programme. &nbsp;There was not a dry eye in the house at COMMIT!Forum as Blum talked about the African villagers he met during his decades on the ground feeding those in need.<br /><br />Looking forward to sharing more stories like this during our conference this fall.&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div>Dave Armonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07682374163063882737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-48849412402029635552017-05-26T12:25:00.002-07:002017-05-26T12:37:08.646-07:00How Harrah’s Resort SoCal Focuses on Being Environmentally Friendly Through its Sustainability Practices<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KGHzFfjRtg/WSiA28HU74I/AAAAAAAAAig/BLfCBiPZNHwCz8nUs1WDvP3QgRdn-nfLgCLcB/s1600/Harrahs1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--KGHzFfjRtg/WSiA28HU74I/AAAAAAAAAig/BLfCBiPZNHwCz8nUs1WDvP3QgRdn-nfLgCLcB/s400/Harrahs1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />At Harrah’s Resort Southern California, going green part of its daily operation. As a business that runs 24 hours a day, seven days of the week, the resort has discovered ways to monitor and control its environmental impact at every level—from housekeeping to book keeping. <br /><br />As part of the Caesars Entertainment family, Harrah’s embraced its corporate CodeGreen promise to preserve the planet, but it also constantly looks for unique ways to conserve that make sense for the specific needs of its Southern California location. Harrah’s has been a green property since 2007 and along the way staff has learned some valuable lessons that help to continue to evolve the sustainability program. <br /><br /><b>Putting the Sun to Work </b><br /><br />Resorts are a business that keeps the lights on 365 days a year. That’s a lot of electricity, so it became a huge priority to offset this impact. In addition to converting over 90-percent of on-property lighting to earth-friendly LED, they have also found a way to embrace the advantage of the hotel’s geographical location. Southern California receives approximately 264 days of sunshine per year, so going solar made sense. <br /><br />Harrah’s Resort SoCal became the first resort in Southern California to go solar when it installed a 5.5-acre solar field in 2009. Since then it has generated 11,858,912 kilowatt-hours of electricity—the equivalent to keeping 1,722 cars off the road. They also added solar panels to the top of our North Tower, which are used exclusively to heat the pool. The investment has had a long-term positive effect on the hotel’s overall eco-footprint and they are looking for additional ways to increase solar efforts. <br /><br /><b>Recycling is More than Paper and Plastic </b><br /><br />Recycling has a huge impact on natural resources, which is why Harrah’s Resort SoCal has implemented programs from kitchens to our hotel rooms. Each year it diverts close to 500 tons of mixed materials. That is equal to saving enough energy to power an average American household for 9.5 years. More than just the standard paper and plastic, Harrah’s also recycles electronic waste, batteries, eyeglasses, cooking oil and billboard vinyls.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vu1Y99M--lE/WSiA-3lfNhI/AAAAAAAAAik/gCibpNkjTKACbEM3rWj4_XtTPFqPNWY3gCLcB/s1600/Harrahs4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="1600" height="189" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vu1Y99M--lE/WSiA-3lfNhI/AAAAAAAAAik/gCibpNkjTKACbEM3rWj4_XtTPFqPNWY3gCLcB/s320/Harrahs4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />But that’s just one way to help the planet stay healthy. According to the World Health Organization, over 2 million children under the age of five die every year from diseases preventable by good hygiene. While guests love the convenience of complimentary soap and shampoo, Harrah’s found a way to continue to offer this amenity while still reducing waste and helping save lives. <br /><br />By partnering with Clean the World, the resort donates thousands of pounds hygiene products every year that are then sanitized, repackaged and redistributed globally in areas where they are needed. Every two months the housekeeping staff collects approximately 1,800 pounds of recyclable products, and since 20011 Harrah’s has donated more than 60,000 bars of soap and recycled more than 5,200 pounds of plastic containers. <br /><br /><b>Putting Local on the Menu </b><br /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vhCe5CMuR4Q/WSiBFR86tvI/AAAAAAAAAio/DY4OQ4nfXqEm_Fb-MHOICruYE6xdjgyGgCLcB/s1600/Harrahs3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1280" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vhCe5CMuR4Q/WSiBFR86tvI/AAAAAAAAAio/DY4OQ4nfXqEm_Fb-MHOICruYE6xdjgyGgCLcB/s320/Harrahs3.jpg" width="320" /></a>For a full-service resort with multiple restaurants—some which are open 24 hours—choosing to buy from local sources can benefit guests as well as the business bottom line. By purchasing from nearby farms, the hotel reduces its carbon footprint and helps put money back into the local economy. In addition, the restaurants source sustainably caught seafood, something that guests prefer and has a larger value to the planet. Choosing local or sustainable food selections may not always be the cheapest choice, but they are the options Harrah’s feel good about and guests also appreciate. <br /><br />In addition to buying local, Harrah’s has also found a way to grow its own. With an on-property garden, it’s able to supplement its kitchens with fresh herbs and veggies—used in both the teammate dining room and guest-facing outlets. Not only is this a cost savings, but there is a satisfaction of knowing for sure where these veggie came from and how they were grown. <br /><br /><b>Choose What’s Right, Not What’s Easy </b><br /><br />Harrah’s eco-friendly efforts are constantly growing and it has its teammates and guests to thank. By opening up lines of communication through its website, social channels and guest surveys, the company is listening to what’s important to the community. In 2012, it added four electric vehicle charging stations. This was not something that it needed to do, but something it heard guests and teammates would like to have. Since that time the demand has grown and it has added four more charging stations. The appreciation gained from guests and teammates by adding options like this that help them continue their own eco-friendly efforts is well worth the investment. <br /><br />Learn more at <a href="http://harrahssocal.com/CodeGreen">http://HarrahsSoCal.com/CodeGreen</a> or search hashtag #HarrahsCodeGreen. <br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">_______________________________________________________________________&nbsp;</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;"><b><i>Caesar’s Entertainment Properties’ CodeGreen<br /></i></b><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><b><i>CodeGreen is an organization-wide strategy to drive environmental awareness and engagement, as well as performance, across the business. CodeGreen was established with a baseline year of 2007 for most of its environmental impacts, and now has additional elements of the company’s corporate responsibility strategy for a comprehensive approach.</i></b><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><b><i>Each location participates in CodeGreen with its own CodeGreen Leaders who champion their location’s unique, detailed work plan and targets to achieve during the year while inspiring their colleagues to embed environmentally conscious behaviors into their daily lives.&nbsp;</i></b></blockquote><span style="text-align: center;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;___________________________________________________________________________</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>&nbsp;</i>—<i>Darrell Pilant, senior vice president and general manager of Harrah’s Resort Southern California</i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-69326298448150653882017-05-22T07:45:00.001-07:002017-05-22T07:55:59.710-07:00From Seaside Resort to Downtown Detroit, Sustainable Brands Switches Gears<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCcyGgJFWQE/WSL5PcEPyTI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/69-uHsBGdPMAXEjBpuzmZKeELcn-WnQVgCLcB/s1600/Detroit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DCcyGgJFWQE/WSL5PcEPyTI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/69-uHsBGdPMAXEjBpuzmZKeELcn-WnQVgCLcB/s400/Detroit.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">(Murals for Detroit’s Eastern Market against the backdrop of a rejuvenated downtown. Sustainable Brands moved its U.S. conference to Detroit from San Diego)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td></tr></tbody></table>In June of 2016, Sustainable Brands founder KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz promised attendees at the 2017 edition of her annual flagship U.S. conference to focus on the new look at industrialization and its intersection with social and environmental issues. <br /><br />Her ability to predict where the world’s business news outlets would be focused on the opening day of her event 11 months later was uncanny. <br /><br />The keynote speaker for tonight’s opening session at Cobo Center in downtown Detroit is Ford Motor Company Chairman Bill Ford who, according to multiple press accounts, has just replaced CEO Mark Fields with the head of the Ford subsidiary that works on autonomous vehicles, Jim Hackett. <br /><br />Moving the Sustainable Brands conference to the heart of the U.S. Rust Belt was already a jarring event for the 2,000 'sustainarati' who use the event to network, hear inspiring presentations and meet with suppliers in the rapidly growing environmental, social and governance sectors. <br /><br />“Our community is focused on the global truth that, at this moment in history, it is time for all businesses to get back to the place where they have embedded a meaningful purpose beyond profit into the core of their activities,” wrote Vikoren Skrzyniarz as she announced the event would move from San Diego’s Paradise Point resort to Michigan. “But what comes next? It’s time for us to leave ‘Paradise’ as it is classically envisioned, with the sun and sand and palm trees, and redefine a new global societal aspiration that goes beyond the ‘Dream’ of the Industrial Age. What better place than to begin that imagineering than in the heartland of America where the industrial age took hold and innovation unfolded?” <br /><br />The decision to host Sustainable Brands in the 2.4 million square complex where the North American International Auto Show takes place each January is no longer as contradictory as it would have been a decade earlier. <br /><br />Environmentalists are mainstream consumers today. Hybrid vehicles are everywhere. Now, Tesla and General Motors have scaled production of their electric cars to a point where they are affordable. <br /><br />Yet even with the ability to drive without contributing to global warming, demographics have changed and automotive ownership is no longer the ultimate status symbol. <br /><br />With urban farming providing locally sourced food, bike paths, light rail and the ability to hail a car with touch of a smartphone, city centers are thriving in once abandoned downtowns like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit. <br /><br />It’s against that reality that Vikoren Skrzyniarz wisely chose the Motor City for a look at the new definition of “the good life,” and Bill Ford to speak on a day where investors watching closely to see how corporate America is responding. <br /><br /><i>CR Magazine’s</i> blog will provide updates throughout the conference. Check back to see all the action here!Adminnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-57519517848484781372017-04-07T06:56:00.004-07:002017-04-07T06:58:55.178-07:00Well-communicated Strategic Social Responsibility Allows HR to ThriveWhen teams are engaged in meaningful civic work, it sparks a virtuous cycle for the business and the community. This is driven by the purposeful alignment between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Marketing Communications (MarComm)—a leading catalyst for strengthening a company’s employer brand. <br /><br />Many functions of the human resources department are enhanced through CSR programs, such as professional and leadership development, team building, and attracting/retaining employees. By communicating these in focused ways, employees are energized and engaged, and the entire organization benefits. <br /><br />In this second of a two-part series, we address bottom-line improvement through socially responsible investments in all aspects of human resources. Employees are the ambassadors of their companies’ products and services. Internal communications and external reinforcement of the value of intentional civic involvement will attract, engage, train, develop, and retain productive employees and teams. <br /><br /><b>Attracting and Engaging Employees&nbsp;</b><br /><br />Project ROI<i> </i>found that 86 percent of workers believe it is important that their own employer is responsible to society and the environment. Our current and future workforce expects civic involvement to be a valued part of their work life through volunteering, fundraising, donating, and serving in nonprofit leadership roles. <br /><br />Studies show that young workers expect employers to partner with community organizations, including financial, hands-on, skill-based, and in-kind investments. They want to be part of a community that makes a difference in the world by bringing appropriate assets to bear, and they want to be part of a culture that values what employees can accomplish. <br /><br />How do you communicate this internally the right way? Job candidates and current employees need to hear three key messages:<br />1) WHY do we as a business invest in society and what do we hope to achieve?<br />2) WHAT are the community opportunities offered to employees?<br />3) HOW does the company culture recognize and value civic participation and leadership? <br /><br />Here are some communications strategies to address that:<br /><ul><li>Dedicate space for the company’s CSR program in appropriate customer or public-facing communications, including your website, business development collateral, blogs, and social media.&nbsp;</li><li>Include CSR philosophies in all internal communications to highlight service and impact —employee manual, company intranet, e-newsletter feature stories, pictures on social media of volunteer projects, employee awards for civic leadership roles, kick-off meetings and events, etc.&nbsp;</li><li>Create and distribute content about the charity partner and its cause that features your employees and/or products side-by-side with the nonprofit’s beneficiaries; this can tell your story through traditional and social media. </li></ul><b>Training and Developing Employees&nbsp;</b><br /><br />Meaningful CSR programs open the doors for more, different, and less expensive training and development programs for employees. Meeting management, public speaking, and networking skills are some of the early benefits of nonprofit involvement. Board training and board service are opportunities at the more senior levels. <br /><br />According to management consulting guru, Peter Drucker, “The best training for a young manager is to serve in a community organization.” Teach employees to develop relationships in the community; this will serve them both professionally and personally. It starts with volunteering which can be followed by program leadership, event chairmanship, fundraising for a cause, to eventual board service. <br /><br />Supporting these opportunities as a company creates buy-in and sustainable employee involvement. Communicating these strategies well is the catalyst to that outcome:<br /><ul><li>Include community commitments in personnel reviews, not to punish those who spend their energy elsewhere, but to reward those who lead in ways that benefit the business.&nbsp;</li><li>Discuss civic service as a conduit for improving work performance or leadership capability. Challenged by public speaking? Join a fundraising committee to practice pitching the organization’s cause. Trouble running meetings? Join a non-profit committee to see how it’s done and emulate it. Need to build a network? Attend charitable events to meet people on common ground.&nbsp;</li><li>Create opportunities for employees to use their expertise or the company’s products to address a social need. Professional services firms participate in pro bono work; tradespeople build homes; retailers use products in the field; manufacturers improve operations. </li></ul><b>Fostering Teamwork and Productivity&nbsp;</b><br /><br />CSR programs can reduce a company’s turnover rate by up to 50 percent, and can potentially increase productivity by up to 13 percent (Babson College, 2016), but employees need to know about them and rally behind the initiatives. Promoting volunteerism builds cohesion and allows information, perspective, and ideas to flow seamlessly across the organization. <br /><br />But lead by example. When bosses serve on nonprofit boards, participate in company volunteer projects, and talk about the value of service, most people will follow. When team members feel they are part of something larger that matters, they are inspired to do their jobs even better. Leverage metrics—volunteer hours, cans collected, money raised—to tell your company’s story of doing good, and use this information to incentivize entire departments or create a friendly location-based competition. Establish an internal service award that is lauded as a really big deal by senior leadership, and recognize those participants through social media so they can share with their networks. <br /><br />There are many communications strategies that can enhance these efforts and drive further buy-in:<br /><ul><li>Incorporate messages into every communications opportunity possible—posters in the break rooms, orientation and training messaging, store-level and departmental meetings, regional events, HR calls for benefits, etc.&nbsp;</li><li>Share often the answers to the questions: What did we do? What did we accomplish? What did we learn? Investors, customers, employees, and other stakeholders will take notice and take interest.&nbsp;</li><li>Create feature stories of exemplary teamwork and cross-department/cross-level cooperation, and use pictures, testimonials, and data to tell the story. </li></ul>In an <a href="http://thecrmag.blogspot.com/2017/02/how-to-grow-business-bottom-line.html" target="_blank">earlier piece</a>, we explored the revenue side of CSR programs and the communications that enable their success in the areas of brand differentiation, new products and services, and new markets (locations and audiences). Our purpose for this article was to round out those front-of-the-house business levers with strategies for employees and teams. <br /><br />From a marketing perspective, thoughtful community engagement is a foundational pillar for differentiating an organization and energizing its employee base. Recognize your programs and reward those who are championing its efforts both internally and externally. By expertly marketing corporate social responsibility programs, your employer brand—the relationship among your organization, its employees, and potential new hires—can really shine. <br /><i><br /></i><i>—Lisa Tilt, Full Tilt Consulting; and Jennifer Hartz, Corporate Hartz, LLC </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-50855239164282436262017-03-31T12:06:00.000-07:002017-03-31T13:11:25.493-07:00Three Strategies to Get Ahead of Wellness TrendsEmployers are eager to increase employee health engagement to drive value for employees while improving the bottom line. But of course, not all health engagement initiatives are worth the effort or investment. Employers who develop good engagement strategies are leveraging cutting-edge technology, expanding the meaning of well-being, and utilizing analytics to break the mold and drive substantial financial value. <br /><br /><b>The Multi-million-dollar Financial Value </b><br /><br />A new report, <i>The Business Case for Employee Health Engagement</i> by Welltok, a consumer health SaaS company, revealed that businesses could produce almost $300 per employee in new value by increasing employee health engagement rates by ten percent. This value is made up of reductions in medical and direct HR costs as well as improvements in workplace productivity. The value proposition, in combination with the positive impact on employees, makes the business case for increasing engagement very strong. However, employers struggle with how to strategically gain significant improvements in engagement. It takes a thoughtful, evidence-based strategy. <br /><b><br /></b><b>Strategies to Increase Engagement </b><br /><br />To dramatically increase employee health engagement, employers should focus on four specific enterprise-wide strategies:<br /><br /><b>1. Focus on Impact: </b>Employers who try to engage employees in every aspect of health become disorganized, unfocused and are not likely to succeed. Employers need to build a plan that emphasizes the programs, services, and activities that are both important and interesting to employees, and have the largest potential financial benefit to the employer. In almost every case, this requires applying analytics to help you determine where to start first. <br /><br /><b>2. Build Employee Trust:</b> Like any relationship, trust and transparency are key. If employees truly believe that employers want them to be happy, healthy and resilient, they are more likely to participate and stay engaged in initiatives. <br /><br /><b>3. Personalization is Key: </b>The more personalized and tailored an initiative is, the more likely an employee will remain engaged. The best approach leverages advanced analytics that integrate a wide variety of consumer and clinical data. By utilizing such advanced capabilities, employers can create programs that resonate with each individual’s experience, needs and wants. <br /><br /><b>4. Make it Easy: </b>Living less out of habit and more out of intent is understandably difficult. It is essential for employers to do whatever they can to make it easier for employees to make changes. Among other things, they must take into consideration the user experience and make sure that programs are straightforward, intuitive and built with the end-user in mind.<br /><br /><b>&nbsp;Key Trends Worth Leveraging </b><br /><br />The design and implementation of well-being programs are rapidly changing. Employers are leveraging a range of new capabilities in their efforts to improve employee health engagement, including: <br /><ul><li>&nbsp;Utilizing advanced analytics: Employers are capitalizing on advanced analytics to understand their population at the deepest level. They are integrating consumer data with clinical information to enable a rich understanding of each employee.&nbsp;</li><li>Rethinking the definition of well-being: Employers are broadening their well-being focus to include financial well-being, emotional health and integration of devices to create holistic strategies.&nbsp;</li><li>&nbsp;Increased understanding of health literacy and consumerism: Employers are providing new tools and resources to help employees gain an understanding of the financial and health implications of the providers they use and the choices they make about treatments. These efforts are being driven by the imperative of increased financial responsibility that employees have for health services and insurance coverage. </li></ul><br /><b>The Effort and Investment are Worth it </b><br /><br />Increasing employee health engagement is not only beneficial for employees, but it is also good for business. <br /><br />Meaningful employee health engagement requires more than just participating in a single activity or going to a website. It is important for employers to focus on what matters and what works. To achieve this, employers need to be dedicated, intentional and focused on effective strategies while keeping current with key trends shaping the well-being industry. <br /><br />Get a full view of the value of engaging employees in key health decisions and action by downloading the comprehensive report, <a href="http://info.welltok.com/value-of-engaged-employees?utm_campaign=VOE%20white%20paper&amp;utm_source=HR.com%20byline&amp;utm_medium=article" target="_blank"><i>The Business Case for Employee Health Engagement. </i></a><br /><br /><i>&nbsp;—David Veroff, senior vice president, evidence and value science, Welltok </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-22128756772921755172017-03-29T12:46:00.001-07:002017-03-29T12:48:58.912-07:00The Evolving Role of HR in Corporate Responsibility Today, Gallup reports that more than half of employees in the U.S. (51 percent) are not engaged with their jobs; while 16 percent are actively disengaged. If we use Gallup’s definition of an engaged employee, that means more than half of the workforce is not involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace. This should scare employers. But it’s not all bad news—over the past few years we’ve seen one trend emerge that can play a role in mitigating this employee indifference and to an extent, has the potential to recapture some of employees’ interest in the work they do and the companies they work for: the opportunity to do social good. <br /><br /><b>Not Your Father’s Corporate Responsibility&nbsp;</b><br /><br />&nbsp;The notion of corporate responsibility and what it means to be a socially responsible organization is changing. We are shifting away from companies doing some fundraising, writing a check to a foundation or non-profit, marking “do good” off their corporate checklist, and moving on to the next thing with no further thought to where the money was going or whom or what it was impacting. <br /><br />This change in what it means to give back has been impacted in part from within by employees themselves. According to the 2016 Cone Communications Employee Engagement Study, 74 percent of employees said their jobs are more fulfilling when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact on societal and environmental issues. Not to mention the impact of corporate social responsibility on recruitment and loyalty; 51 percent of people won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments and 70 percent of employees say they would be more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to important issues. <br /><br />Employee expectations on corporate responsibility factor into a larger trend around changing societal and cultural norms. Today, people are looking for companies to step up, to help, and to make a stand more so than ever before. The pressure for companies to give back is not only internal, but also coming from their customers and communities. <br /><br />Looking back on our definition of an engaged employee—involved, enthusiastic, and committed—it seems like investing in a solid corporate responsibility program can help fulfill these criteria for employees. <br /><br /><b>Enter HR&nbsp;</b><br /><br />Historically, human resource (HR) involvement in corporate responsibility initiatives has not been a given. Some HR departments own corporate responsibility initiatives, some work in tandem with the corporate responsibility departments within their organizations, while many remain entirely disconnected from corporate responsibility efforts. But thanks to the growing link between employee recruitment, engagement and retention efforts and an organization’s commitment to social good, times are changing. <br /><br />Many organizations may feel the pressure to create, ramp up, or expand their existing corporate responsibility programs, and HR can play a critical role in accomplishing these goals by clearly communicating and presenting defined social programs and employee volunteer campaigns that both current and prospective employees can feel good about. <br /><br />HR professionals should view corporate responsibility as an integral facet of employee engagement and professional development. Volunteer programs can be used as a recruitment tool, and skills-based volunteer programs can be leveraged to develop talent internally. HR should be involved as a key stakeholder in scoping and administering employee volunteer programs. <br /><br />When employees can participate in skills-based volunteering, they’re not only contributing to others, but also their own professional growth. Deloitte’s 2016 <i>Impact Survey </i>found that volunteering can play a significant role in building key leadership skills. As HR professionals are tasked with developing high-impact training and development programs with limited resources, corporate responsibility initiatives involving skills-based volunteerism may serve as an effective means of professional development and management training. For example, a marketing associate who helps a nonprofit organization design a fundraising campaign might have the opportunity to further develop skills for project management, lead generation, and strategic communications. For large enterprises with multiple locations, consider selecting people in each office to head up local volunteer efforts. This is a great way to organize at a local level while developing leaders throughout your organization. <br /><br />The role that corporate responsibility initiatives and employee volunteer programs play in employee engagement, retention, recruitment, and development goals will only continue to expand. We’re in the midst of a sea change as CR and HR professionals feel both pressure and inspiration from all angles—employees, senior management, the community, and customers—to uplevel social good programs. As these voices become louder and the expectations placed on corporations continue to grow, it presents an opportunity for HR professionals to broaden their work within corporate responsibility, launch a new program, or become better connected to an existing program within their organization—and all while doing some good at the same time. <br /><br /><i>—Jamie Serino, director of marketing for Blackbaud, Corporations &amp; Foundations Division </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-14507934374195652162017-03-27T08:38:00.000-07:002017-03-27T08:38:33.278-07:00Will Humans Regulate Artificial Intelligence?While the artificial intelligence revolution is coming quickly, economic adjustments take time. Therefore, dislocation, disruption, and suffering are inevitable. How can we ensure that the revolution empowers people—or “informates,” to use the term coined by Shoshana Zuboff—rather than denigrates us by leaving us without jobs and a loss of control over our lives? Renowned physicist Steven Hawking has warned that AI may become an existential threat to our species. He told the BBC "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race...It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.” <br /><br />Other experts assure us that people can always gain control, at least in the foreseeable future. They harken back to science fiction writer Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics:<br /><ul><li>A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;</li><li>A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and</li><li>A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.</li></ul>Of course, while we are in the domain of science fiction, we remember the computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film <i>2001 A Space Odyssey. </i>HAL came to believe that the humans were a threat to the mission, and in the man versus machine battle that followed, HAL eventually was deactivated. (For a while, only, for those who watched the sequels!) <br /><br />Without even getting into the existential threats, the AI revolution raises fundamental questions about who will win and who will lose. How will robotics impact the distribution of political, economic and social power across the globe? Will the current organization of nation states still make sense? Will transnational corporations control the means and effects of production and employment, with their systems beyond government access and understanding? <br /><br />What about those whose work is no longer needed, be that executives, managers, production workers, service workers, agricultural workers, or anybody else? And particularly, what will happen to those who are not suitable for new jobs that may emerge? Do we need to fundamentally restructure access to income, adopting, for example, guaranteed minimum income or negative income tax schemes? Or will we be content to let the unemployed fall through overwhelmed safety nets? <br /><br />Next, we can look at the ethical decision-making built into AI systems themselves. We all are familiar with the self-driving car question: The car has a choice of slamming into a wall, killing its occupants, or running over a group of pedestrians. Networking among vehicles should make this event rare, but it will come up. What should the car be programmed to do? Should the car owner have a say? <br /><br />The U.S. military is already a parallel issue in drone attacks on targets by requiring a human action to order a kill. In the future battlefield, if the AI system determines that the time for human action will result in significant loss of friendly life, what should it do? Our forces are now testing swarms of smaller drones that use “colony” behavior modeled on ants and bees to identify and eliminate risks. As one officer explained, when you eliminate the human pilot, you can buy a lot more of them. So how much autonomy should we give the swarms? <br /><br />Of course, AI also gives us the capacity to understand more than we literally can imagine ourselves. Companies are already using AI to analyze supply chains to eliminate human rights abuses, minimize environmental risks and reduce carbon footprints. The very modeling of our planet’s atmosphere, oceans and surfaces gives us knowledge that we may use to address the existential risks of climate change. AI in the end will do what we tell it to—unless Steven Hawking is right. <br /><br />So, what are the rules going forward? How do multi-national organizations, governments, companies and citizens have a say? <br /><br />Last September, the New York Times reported that tech companies’ main concern is having regulators jump in and create unworkable rules around their AI work. Peter Stone, one of the authors of a Stanford University report titled <i>Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030</i> remarked, “We’re not saying that there should be no regulation. We’re saying that there is a right way and a wrong way.” <br /><br />The Stanford report itself states that “attempts to regulate AI in general would be misguided, since there is no clear definition of AI, it is not any one thing, and the risks and considerations are very different at all levels of government.” David Kenny, general manager for IBM’s Watson AI division, is quoted as saying, “There is a role for government, and we respect that. The challenge, he said is “a lot of times policies lag the technologies.” <br /><br />Five tech giants—including Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft—recently agreed that industry self-regulation, in the context of appropriate government regulation, is the way forward. <i>The Times</i> reported a new tech group modeled on a similar human rights effort known as the Global Network Initiative, in which corporations and nongovernmental organizations are focused on freedom of expression and privacy rights. Specifics of the effort, including its name, are still being hashed out. <br /><br />I am encouraged by self-regulation of AI, particularly if the self-regulation process, standards and underlying values are fully transparent and open to broad input, debate, review and modification. Computer scientists will need to interact with social scientists and philosophers, as proposed by Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab and a member of the <i>New York Times </i>Board. In this schema, AI and robotic systems have what they term “society in the loop.” This means that we humans still need to be a integral part of any system. <br /><br />While the workings of AI systems will be well beyond our common understanding, their impact on our lives will be quite obvious. Like generations of our ancestors, we will be on a transformational journey with winners and losers, this time at blinding speed. It’s going to be quite a ride. <br /><br />In these situations, we used to say, “Fasten your seat belts.” But soon, the robots will do that for us. Should we trust them?<br /><br /><i>—Barton Alexander, Principal, <a href="http://www.alexanderassoc.com/" target="_blank">Alexander &amp; Associates LLC</a></i> Adminnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-27131029841110832152017-03-24T08:19:00.002-07:002017-03-24T08:20:28.158-07:0025 Years of World Water Day – Continuing the Mission to Provide Clean Drinking Water<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eIILETf9obg/WNU5NBrB3QI/AAAAAAAAAhw/BDsZ1MV9krYyYBzwPrlrJZqSk_rgLUcxwCLcB/s1600/index.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eIILETf9obg/WNU5NBrB3QI/AAAAAAAAAhw/BDsZ1MV9krYyYBzwPrlrJZqSk_rgLUcxwCLcB/s1600/index.png" /></a></div>March 22, 2017, marked the 25th anniversary of World Water Day, an annual date to encourage action to tackle the global water crisis. Access to safe drinking water is essential to overcoming extreme poverty across the world by 2030. Safe drinking water and proper sanitation not only greatly reduces infant mortality and water-borne diseases, but it is also an enabler for socioeconomic development and global gender equality.<br /><br />P&amp;G is committed to playing its part to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by providing clean drinking water to those who need it most and increasing safe sanitation and hygiene behaviours. The company has committed to delivering 15 billion litres of clean drinking water by 2020 through the P&amp;G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW), its signature initiative to address the critical need for clean drinking water around the world. For the past 12 years, it has worked with more than 150 partners to provide P&amp;G Purifier of Water packets for emergency relief, in the event of natural disasters, and in hard-to-reach rural areas where people don’t have access to clean drinking water. Invented by P&amp;G scientists, each 4 gram packet treats 10 litres of water by effectively killing bacteria and viruses and removing parasites and solid materials. <br /><br />To celebrate World Water Day 2017, P&amp;G partnered with Upworthy to highlight the power of clean water in two videos that show how the CSDW Program is helping empower women around the world. <br /><br />In the first video, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNWrZUQ2tCE&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">Bechibila is featured</a>; she is committed to educating her community about the critical importance of clean water. In the second film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pORSpg__w4&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">three more women entrepreneurs</a> are leading businesswomen in their communities now that they have access to clean water. <br /><br />In Latin America, P&amp;G has partnered with Fox/National Geographic to produce a 60-minute documentary segment to raise awareness about the water crisis in the region and the CSDW efforts in Argentina, Brazil, Panama and Costa Rica. The program will be televised in more than 10 countries from now until May 2017. To see the English subtitled trailer spot, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Fyq7x4jsY&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">click here</a>. <br /><i><br /></i><i>—Allison Tummon Kamphuis, P&amp;G CSDW program leader</i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-4790659741675405462017-03-20T13:46:00.004-07:002017-03-20T13:47:16.249-07:00The Artificial Intelligence Revolution is NowHumankind has engaged technology to do more with less labor for as long as we have lived. In fact, somewhere between 2.5 and 3.4 million years ago, the common ancestors of humans and primates began to make and use crude tools. It took at least another million years before our early ancestors first learned to control fire; widespread use of fire for cooking is relatively recent, somewhere between 50 to 100,000 years ago.<br /><br />It was about 12,000 years ago that hunter-gathers began to use cultivated agriculture for food. Somewhere around 30,000 years later, in the 9th century, gunpowder and early machinery marked a new technological era. A thousand years later, in the late 18th and early 19th century, the industrial revolution vastly accelerated our use of technology for production of goods. Mechanical calculators became commercially viable in the mid-1800’s, early analog computers came about 100 years later. <br /><br />I remember first using a time-share computer terminal in my high school in 1968. Personal computers became commercially viable in the early-mid 1980’s, with the World Wide Web coming into its glory in the following decades. The new millennium, beginning only 17 years ago, was marked by widespread adoption of the smart phone, which seemed like a tremendous upgrade from the old PDAs. We bragged that our phones now had more computing capacity than the computers that guided moonshots. Computer networks and new and cheaper storage and processing exploded computer capacities. Now, we are now at the cusp of a new revolution based on quantum computing. <br /><br />Throughout this several million year history, each technological revolution was met with both excitement and dread. Each time, the social, economic, and environmental impacts were profound. Disruptions were real. Family life changed. Work changed. Community changed. Political structures changed. Wars grew in scope and devastation. People migrated. There were winners and losers. And yet, somehow, the species adapted. It took time to adjust, but we survived and thrived. <br /><br />Today’s artificial intelligence revolution isn’t leaving us much adjustment time. In 1984, Shoshana Zuboff, a Harvard Business School Professor, wrote<i> In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power.</i> She described how the new machines may be used to empower—she called that “informate”—or to control, demean, and impoverish. Her book echoed the challenges faced in all our prior technological revolutions and foreshadowed the artificial intelligence debate today: Will technology create opportunities that we cannot even imagine and free us to pursue more lofty ambitions or take away our jobs and livelihood, our privacy, and our very dignity? <br /><br />We have already experienced significant manufacturing job losses due to automation. A Ball State University study attributes 85 percent of U.S. manufacturing job losses to robotics and other productivity improvements, and only 13 percent due to trade. <br /><br />The impacts are now moving to technical, analytical, and even managerial roles. According to a study done at Oxford University, over the next 10 to 20 years, 47 percent of all U.S. jobs are vulnerable to automation. Consider this observation by software developer Martin Ford, who was quoted in a December <i>New Yorker </i>review of his recent book: “A computer doesn’t need to replicate the entire spectrum of your intellectual capability in order to displace you from your job; it only needs to do the specific things you are paid to do.” <br /><br />James Manyika, a senior partner at McKinsey and Company, agrees that almost half of the activities we pay people about $16 trillion in wages to do in the global economy have the potential to be automated using currently demonstrated technology. He believes that the most automatable activities involve data collection and manipulation as well as physical work in predictable environments including manufacturing, food services, transportation, warehousing, and retail. These sectors make up 51 percent of U.S. employment activities and $2.7 trillion in U.S. wages. And he adds that about 25 percent of what CEOs do, such as analyzing reports and data, could be replaced. <br /><br />Manyika believes that in the short to medium term, more jobs will be changed than those fully automated away. And several other experts observe that even the eliminated jobs may be balanced by those created in enterprises yet to be determined. Consider, for example, that Google didn’t exist 20 years ago, and now its parent company Alphabet has a market cap of over $575 billion. <br /><br />Elizabeth Kolbert comments in her <i>New Yorker</i> book review: “Picture the entire industrial revolution compressed into the life span of a beagle.” Is this a good thing? More specifically, to paraphrase Zuboff, will the AI revolution “infomate” or denigrate? That question will be the topic of the next blog in this series.<br /><br /><i>—Barton Alexander, Principal, <a href="http://www.alexanderassoc.com/" target="_blank">Alexander &amp; Associates LLC</a></i> Adminnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-70775900288121513532017-03-15T07:40:00.000-07:002017-03-16T08:29:53.679-07:00S&P 500 Index Company Boards Need More Oversight of Sustainability Strategies and Execution, plus Disclosures<i>Results of research and analysis joint project by Ceres and Governance &amp; Accountability Institute reveals: A closer look at the sustainability disclosure of S&amp;P500(r) companies re-affirms the continuing need for greater oversight of sustainability efforts and disclosure of same by the boards of directors of the 500 companies. </i><br /><br />Now that the clear majority of S&amp;P 500 companies are publishing "sustainability" or "citizenship,"&nbsp; "ESG" reports, the vast majority of companies still do not disclose more than the bare minimum on the role that their boards play on sustainability. (Research shows that while only 20 percent of the S&amp;P 500 were publishing such reports in 2011, that number zoomed to 81 percent as of 2015.) <br /><br />Despite the dramatic growth in corporate disclosure and reporting, the joint research project showed that the majority of companies do not (yet) provide enough insightful information for stakeholders—such as how environmental and social issues ("E" and "S") actually get on the board agenda, how strategy is set, how those decisions are made, and most important, how the senior managers rank and file then follow through on those decisions. What are the outcomes? <br /><br />Given that boards of directors can play a critical role in driving the long-term performance of the companies which they oversee by carefully assessing both risks and opportunities related to their financial performance and overall strategic direction, disclosure about the role of the board is critical to helping investors and other stakeholders make thoughtful decisions on how well a company is organized and prepared for its long-term performance and viability. <br /><br /><b>About the S&amp;P 500 Universe of Companies&nbsp;</b><br /><br />Each year since 2011, the G&amp;A Institute team has examined all of the sustainability reports of those S&amp;P 500 companies that are disclosing information about their sustainability performance. In this collaborative study with CERES, G&amp;A further examined a select sub-group of companies using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI’s) G4 Sustainability Reporting Standard that was published in the 2015 calendar year<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span>. <br /><b><br /></b><b>The Ceres - G&amp;A Institute Analysis </b><br /><br />G&amp;A Institute worked with Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization, in conducting a deeper dive in the data and corporate narrative to determine the extent to which this important universe of U.S. companies were disclosing the role that their boards play in driving corporate sustainability performance. <br /><br />This analysis could not have been more timely: Institutional and individual investors increasingly want to know more about what actions corporate boards are taking on material environmental and social issues ("E" and "S") that do or could pose risks and ultimately impact the performance of the companies that they invest in. <br /><br />Shareholders now have more influence in board composition, and are becoming increasingly vocal in expressing concerns about the board members' sustainability expertise and experience, which shareowners deem to be necessary board qualifications today. Investors are increasingly focused on companies' ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance strategies and practices) for their portfolio management. <br /><br />For example, last year large institutional investors such as California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) were updating their investment criteria. CalPERS updated its Global Governance Principles and now requires their portfolio companies to identify and recruit of directors with expertise and experience in climate change risk management strategies. <br /><br />Ceres’ analysis was based on practical recommendations from the&nbsp; report <i>View from the Top – How Corporate Boards can Engage on Sustainability Performance.</i> This Ceres research effort highlighted evolving expectations on the systems and actions that companies and boards need to put in place for “effective” board sustainability oversight from the investor and stakeholder points of view. <br /><br /><b>Results:</b> So what did the joint G&amp;A Institute and Ceres analysis reveal? <br /><ul><li><b>While companies acknowledge the role of their board for sustainability, not all of them formalize sustainability in the charter of the board committees.</b> Establishing formal systems, such as board duties in charter incorporation allows sustainability to be raised in board meetings in a systematic and in-depth manner, rather than in an ad hoc way. While 97% of the companies surveyed broadly note that their boards oversee sustainability, only 58% specifically included ESG issues in a board committee charter and area of responsibility. </li><li><b>Very few companies formally require expertise in sustainability issues as a board qualification for nominees for election to the board of directors.</b> Ceres’ report underlined the importance of having board members qualified in material sustainability issues would empower directors to engage with management in a thoughtful and robust manner. Yet, only ten percent of companies surveyed included this criterion in their board nomination process. </li><li><b>A limited universe of companies do integrate sustainability matters into their board evaluation processes</b>. Ceres’ report noted that continuous evaluation of board performance—including on ESG issues of material importance—is necessary for boards to remain effective in their oversight duties. However, only 15 percent of companies surveyed included environmental and social issues in their board evaluations. If these issues were included in their board performance evaluations, the Ceres staff noted, directors would certainly be more diligent in their oversight duties. </li><li><b>Companies do disclose the role of the board in overseeing sustainability risk, yet there is limited disclosure of board decision-making.</b> The Ceres report called on companies to provide more public disclosure, detailing both the role of the corporate board in overseeing sustainability risks, as well as issues that the board prioritized and key decision taken. Only 33 percent of companies surveyed identified that their boards have a critical role to play in overseeing sustainability risk—and yet even for these companies there was limited additional detail provided on the specific issues that the board had prioritized or key decisions made. </li></ul><br /><b>Key Conclusions </b><br /><br />Overall, the joint G&amp;A Institute and Ceres analysis underlines the thesis that while a growing number of companies are starting to publicly acknowledge that their boards play a role in sustainability, the disclosure largely exists at the high level, and the "30,000-foot high view" approach does not provide the needed details on prioritization and decision making that stakeholders are expecting. <br /><br />This shortcoming in corporate disclosure and reporting means that stockholders and key stakeholders are not able to see if this apparent corporate focus has been effective—or if the board of directors' oversight has led to improved sustainability related performance impacts (tangible results that can be clearly articulated). <br /><br />This shortcoming does not necessarily mean that the processes in question do not exist—just that stakeholders don’t yet have enough information to make the decisions on which companies are doing well on this issue, and reward companies with leading practice. <br /><br />Going forward, Ceres and G&amp;A Institute encourage company boards and managements to offer a clearer line of sight on both the systems in place for board sustainability oversight, and also the actions they are taking related to integrate material sustainability issues into overall company performance evaluation, risk management and the creation of long-term value for shareholders.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] These companies have now reached 108 companies (“companies surveyed”) within the index.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><i><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> 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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Emphasis"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Subtle Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Intense Reference"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" Name="Bibliography"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]-->—Louis D. Coppola, co-founder and executive vice president of Governance &amp; Accountability Institute, Inc. (lcoppola@ga-institute.com); and Veena Ramani, program director, capital market systems, Ceres (ramani@ceres.org)</i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-3245604556046201212017-03-13T12:10:00.002-07:002017-03-14T09:44:42.774-07:00The Growing Importance of Industry Self-regulationEvery business today faces tremendous ethical challenges, and increased transparency brings these challenges to the forefront. I believe that vigorous self-regulation will be one critical element to assure a future grounded in integrity. Here’s why. <br /><br />The call for ethics in interpersonal and organizational relationships is ageless—and increasingly important in our interconnected, global world. Businesses are challenged to grow trust, not only for their shareholders, but with their employees, customers, supply chains, communities, and on behalf of the wider, natural world. Simultaneously, governments strive to develop, implement, and manage a functioning legal and regulatory system that rewards fairness and curbs abuses. Businesses, in turn, resist what they term “overregulation,” that—they argue—muddles markets and curtails competitiveness. <br /><br />These trends are particularly important when we consider the increasing rate of economic, political, and technological changes affecting us all. <br /><br />We now exist in a global society, economy, and ecosphere, where many companies and institutions operate across borders. Money, ideas, people, and jobs are increasingly fluid. In this context, national decisions have both limitations and tremendous worldwide implications including: Are we at war or peace? Do we promote free trade or protectionism? Should we enjoy growth or retrenchment? How do we value equity versus efficiency? We see the negative impacts of these some of these decisions in mass migrations, growing inequality and threats to the sustainability of our climate. <br /><br />We live and work with complex systems that are well beyond the grasp of common understanding, yet the implications of these systems are increasingly visible to us. As transparency increases, businesses become exposed to wide knowledge and judgement of the outcomes of their operations on people, communities and the planet. Their “shields” that may have worked in the past—such as legal privilege, “protective” philanthropy, and in some markets, outright bribes—now just compound the problems when they are exposed by social and other media. <br /><br />We now have products and services developed and delivered in ways beyond the capacity of governments to “keep up.” This challenge is evident in the developing world, where even functioning states cannot provide basic services and oversight, not to mention the increasing failures of some states and the emerging power and influence of non-state actors. The challenge is also impacting developed economies, where the rate of change exceeds the capacity of government to understand, let alone react. <br /><br />I recently retired from the beer industry where I had the privilege to struggle with these issues with my colleagues in beverage companies around the world. I became increasingly aware that many decisions previously attributed to governments now are made in the private sector. Stakeholders are demanding that companies address issues of equity, fairness, sustainability, human rights, access to health care and education in ways that are new—and for man—unfamiliar. It is a business world far more complex than one based solely on increasing shareholder returns. The Carnegie Endowment and Virginia Haufler titled this trend “the public role of the private sector.” <br /><br />As a result, leading companies engage with diverse interests and seek to create new products and services that build value for all stakeholders including but certainly not limited to shareholders. Governments, recognizing that they cannot keep up with the rate of change, may seek to simplify regulation to impact the most critical questions of equity and fairness.<br /><br />Of course, this leaves a great gap that is beginning to be filled with effective and transparent systems of self-regulation. For example, food manufacturers are agreeing to reduce sugar and salt and artificial ingredients. Standards of environmental and quality being driven by ISO standards that exceed regulatory requirements. Global codes and commitments on human rights and sustainability are being led via business engagement with the UN Global Compact.<br /><br />In my experience in the alcohol beverage field, companies began with standards of self-regulation in major markets, then extended those standards to emerging markets with limited governmental capacity. Alcohol beverage producers, through the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, then agreed upon principles, standards and models for self-regulation, and producers committed to visible and measurable actions to reduce harmful drinking around the world. <br /><br />Even in the emerging field of artificial intelligence, self-regulation will likely play a pivotal role. As tech companies become worried about regulators creating unworkable and outdated rules around their work, they are turning to self-regulation. In my next blog, I will look at the ethical and societal challenges coming with artificial intelligence, and in the third and final blog of this series, I will take a look at work begun by tech giants to craft a self-regulatory response.<br /><br /><b>Note:</b> This post is adapted from remarks made at Integrity 2017, sponsored by the Center for Enterprise Ethics, Daniels School of Business, University of Denver.<br /><br /><i>—Barton Alexander, Principal, <a href="http://www.alexanderassoc.com/" target="_blank">Alexander &amp; Associates LLC</a></i><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span></span><i> </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-47107505363184119602017-03-06T12:20:00.003-08:002017-03-06T12:33:01.515-08:00The Growing Supply Chain Landscape: CSR Takes the LeadFrom medium-sized businesses to members of the Fortune 500, organizations are investing heavily to ensure sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are ingrained across their supply chains – and they are already seeing major returns.<br /><br />Consider the results of the <i>2017 Sustainable Procurement Barometer</i>, recently released by EcoVadis and HEC Paris. The data, gathered from supply chain professionals around the world, shows multiple business drivers behind a global maturation of the supply chain sustainability market. The research found three primary drivers of sustainability: <br /><ul><li>Brand reputation – identified as a critical factor by 63 percent of organizations; </li><li>Risk mitigation – identified as a critical factor by 61 percent of organizations; and </li><li>Compliance – identified as a critical factor by 57 percent of organization. </li></ul>For the most mature organizations, the benefits are even more tangible. Sustainable procurement is directly impacting the bottom line. In fact, 50 percent of sustainable procurement leaders experienced increased revenue from sustainability initiatives in 2016, which represents 33 percent increase over non-leaders. <br /><br />For organizations looking to expand their sustainable footprint, supply chain transparency plays a critical role. However, only 15 percent of organizations have complete supply chain visibility into the CSR and sustainability performance of both tier one and two suppliers. Beyond that, only six percent of organizations report having full visibility into tier three suppliers and beyond, according to the research. <br /><br />While supply chain visibility continues to be a top challenge for procurement organizations today, nearly every organization surveyed (97 percent) places a high level of importance on sustainability. This consensus among supply chain leaders illustrates just how established the sustainable procurement field has become — a major development in less than 10 years’ time. <br /><br />Interestingly, the report found that over the past three years, the sustainable procurement landscape has shifted its emphasis away from environmental issues and toward social, labor and business ethics. Consider the following findings: <br /><ul><li>Only 18 percent of organizations are placing significantly more importance on the environment today than they were three years ago;</li><li>33 percent of organizations are placing significantly more emphasis on social and labor issues than three years ago; and</li><li>33 percent are placing significantly more emphasis on business ethic. </li></ul>What is driving one-third of respondents toward a more socially and ethically responsible supply chain? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that while social issues continue to grow, environmental efforts may have peaked—these efforts have been maturing for a much longer time, and feasibly came to a head in 2015 with COP21. Meanwhile, the rise of due diligence laws—California Transparency, UK Modern Slavery Act, EU Conflict Minerals and the Devoir de Vigilance bill—are shining a spotlight on social and labor issues in the supply chain. <br /><br />Consumers are also making their preferences felt when it comes to responsible sourcing. Unilever recently surveyed more than 20,000 people across five countries to gauge sentiment around brands using socially and environmentally responsible practices. The study found that one third of consumers intentionally buy from brands that are doing social or environmental good, an opportunity that represents more than one trillion dollars for brands that make their sustainability credentials clear. <br /><br />While the sustainable procurement landscape is still in its infancy, it’s rapidly growing and maturing across the globe. The increase in consumer pressure, and the competitive benefits of operating in a sustainable fashion, will continue to push companies to become more socially responsible and scale their sustainability efforts. This evolution will set the stage for a new phase of sustainable procurement maturity in 2017 and beyond—one where the leaders continue to generate tangible business value and scale programs further, and the laggards either get in the game, or risk falling dreadfully behind. <br /><br /><i>—Pierre-Francois Thaler, co-founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis.&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i><i>EcoVadis is </i>a supplier sustainability ratings company that helps organizations institute corporate social responsibility and various sustainability programs. EcoVadis Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/ecovadis" target="_blank">@ecovadis</a></i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-79385026032994423462017-02-15T07:16:00.003-08:002017-02-15T07:16:31.999-08:00Effective Communication Strategies for Employees in Today's Challenging Business ClimateDuring a merger and acquisition, one aspect of the transition that is often overlooked by large corporations is an effective communication strategy to their frontline employees, which can often lead to feelings of uncertainty, confusion in their roles, and a decrease in company morale. <br /><br />According to a recent report published by Deloitte, 75 percent of corporate executives and private equity investors expect that deal activity will increase in 2017, with 64 percent of those surveyed expecting larger deals. Based on reports that large corporations including Macy’s and Dish have been in discussions about takeovers, they could be adding some validity to those predictions early on in the year. <br /><br />Jeff Corbin, CEO and founder of APPrise Mobile, spent 20 years as an executive in the corporate communications industry, but then saw a larger need for solutions that solve specific communications challenges that industry professionals deal with on an everyday basis. He spoke with <i>CR Magazine</i> about these challenges and solutions.<br /><b><br /></b><b><i>CR Magazine: </i>Can you give some best practices for an effective communications strategy—among senior level executives and to employees?</b><br /><br /><b>Jeff Corbin: </b>Effective communication is all about transparency and the personal touch. Providing just the right amount of information on a relatively frequent basis and doing so in a way in which employees “feel the love” can go a long way. This is especially important during times of change within an organization. <br /><br /><b><i>CR:</i> How can leadership effectively engage and communicate with employees during transitional periods?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>JC: </b>During transitional periods, the most important thing is to be consistent in the way in which you are communicating. If e-mail is the primary communications method, then sharing frequent emails on what is taking place is key. However, as stated above, the personal touch is critical. Live events (town hall meetings), webcasts of the events, video archives and short CEO vlogs go a long way towards engaging with employees and are a great bang for the buck. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>How does an effective communications process tie into corporate responsibility?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>JC: </b>Your employees are your most important audience. They are your ambassadors who carry your organization’s key messages to all external audiences. It’s the responsibility of corporate to ensure that the message does not get muddied or confused as a result of ineffective communications. <br /><br /><b><i>CR:</i></b> <b>What are the benefits to using an app like APPrise Mobile when running a business?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>JC: </b>These days, pretty much everyone has an Apple or Android mobile device, and these devices are very personal to them. theEMPLOYEEapp allows a company to accomplish all of the things mentioned above. It allows for the instantaneous push of information and control of messaging to all employees no matter where they are located, and even supports videos and live events so that employees can feel connected with corporate even if they are not sitting at headquarters. It also centralizes communications so employees have all key messages at their fingertips 24/7. For front-line employees in particular who don’t work in an office environment (which happens to be 80 percent of the overall workforce), it allows for them to feel a part of a corporate community. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>Why is technology so important in effective communications today?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>JC: </b>Same answer as the one above. Everyone has a mobile device. Never before has an organization had such an opportunity to get information and control its messaging simultaneously, instantaneously, and effectively to their entire workforce. Adminnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-61641352359664179272017-02-14T09:43:00.003-08:002017-02-14T09:55:46.025-08:00How to Grow the Business Bottom Line<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P1GLvsab460/WKNEaa7hFrI/AAAAAAAAAgg/1UicXIsK-SAuAjbqkMpfILaBwoq4weSegCLcB/s1600/authors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P1GLvsab460/WKNEaa7hFrI/AAAAAAAAAgg/1UicXIsK-SAuAjbqkMpfILaBwoq4weSegCLcB/s320/authors.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jennifer Hartz and Lisa Tilt</td></tr></tbody></table><i>Companies should use marketing communications strategies that leverage their social responsibility investment</i><br /><br />There are two critical business imperatives that drive corporate operations—revenue enhancement and human resources. If both of those business levers could be augmented and sustained through one program, would you apply it? That is the outcome when organizations purposefully align corporate responsibility with marketing communications (MarComm). <br /><br />According to the Committee for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy’s Giving in Numbers 2016 report, business performance is tied to social responsibility. This finding presumes that companies are connecting their public and business strategies and they are skilled at sharing that information internally and externally. If either of these presumptions is untrue, then a great deal of time and money is being wasted. <br /><br />Paralleling CR and MarComm allows a business to derive the full value of its civic investments. This symbiotic relationship touches every level and function of the organization—from operations to sustainability, or from regulatory practices to growth. <br /><br />Once a leadership team decides to leverage CR with intentionality, it’s time to develop a platform and programs that support organizational opportunities to engage the MarComm team to amplify success in that area. There are revenue enhancement through three performance areas: brand differentiation, new products and services, and new markets. <br /><br /><b>Brand Differentiation&nbsp;</b><br />By demonstrating strong values and a commitment to the community, a company will strengthen its reputation, and differentiate its brand from competing brands. The result is increasing customer/client attraction and loyalty, which drive sales. <br /><br />Effective CR MarComm depends on how the organization’s internal and external messages align with each other and with its core values. “Think of cause marketing as you would any other brand collaboration with for profit companies,” Brooke Golden of Clif Bar said in a Forbes article. “Find a cause whose advocates share your consumer’s profile, understand their networks and strengths, and identify where you can come together around a shared voice and message to amplify both your efforts.” <br /><br />MarComm for in the social responsibility realm should fully commit to the non-profit relationship. Strategies include:<br /><ul><li>Developing relationships with the non-profit’s other (non-competitive, but like-minded) partners to build your company’s brand reputation; and&nbsp;</li><li>Creating content about the partnership and its cause that features your employees and/or products side-by-side with the non-profit’s beneficiaries to tell the story. </li></ul><b>New Products and Services&nbsp;</b><br />Businesses that identify and satisfy a need—be it allergen-free snacks or expert accounting service—are beneficial to society. Performing this action requires an active presence to learn and understand market demands and bring opportunities to the surface.<br /><br />Expressing a charity’s vision and mission effectively is an important task for MarComm teams to keep in mind as they build partnerships with non-profits for the benefit of both organizations via two predominant strategies:<br /><ul><li>Sponsorship – ongoing or event-driven alignment of the business with a non-profit via the donation of funds, products, services, access to donors, and volunteers; and&nbsp;</li><li>Co-branding – found often in consumer products, a non-profit can endorse goods or services in exchange for money and/or exposure on products, signage, or ads. </li></ul><b>New Markets (Locations and Audiences)&nbsp;</b><br />Volunteering alongside residents and activists, politicians and professionals, and parents and teachers, creates awareness, goodwill and trust within the community or demographic. The MarComm team should participate actively in message development and deployment, since most non-profit organizations function with lean teams. <br /><br />It’s best to market involvement to new geographies and audiences with a light touch—coming across as self-congratulatory negates the good work the company does through the partnership. Enable non-profit partners to advocate for the collaboration through marketing initiatives such as:<br /><ul><li>Activate email marketing from the non-profit to its supporters that profiles a case study of the results both entities are achieving together; and&nbsp;</li><li>Use pictures, testimonials, and data to tell the story in the traditional and social media channels of both organizations. Also disseminate via internal communications that connect with employees. </li></ul>It's important to recognize that CSR is multi-faceted. Money matters, ergo people matter. Inform and engage employees and customers so they know why the company is investing in this cause, how to participate, and how their involvement changes the world.<br /><br /><i>—Lisa Tilt and Jennifer Hartz</i><br /><br /><i>Tilt is president of Full Tilt Consulting, a content and communications strategy firm founded in 2006 that works with momentum organizations to grow their business through marketing and employer branding programs.&nbsp;</i><br /><br /><i>Hartz is president of Corporate Hartz, LLC, founded in 2000 to counsel companies on high-impact Corporate Social Responsibility and advise families on philanthropy. </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-85386323491236915822017-02-10T12:33:00.004-08:002017-02-10T12:33:37.860-08:00THRIVE Farmers Becomes a Certified B Corporation THRIVE Farmers International, Inc., a company leading farmer-focused sustainability efforts in the coffee/tea food and beverage industry, announces it has received certification as a B Corporation.<br /><br />THRIVE&nbsp; joins a group of more than 1,800 Certified B Corps from more than 120 industries in 50 countries by meeting rigorous standards for social and environmental ethics, transparency and accountability to employees, suppliers, and the global community.<br /><br />“In an industry full of certifications, the B Corp certification is more holistic and validates that THRIVE Farmers' good work goes beyond intention to create true impact for farmers and consumers,” Kenneth Lander, THRIVE Farmers co-founder and chief sustainability officer, says. <br /><br />THRIVE Farmers was founded in 2011 to allow coffee and tea farmers to economically, socially, and environmentally "thrive." The biggest hurdle farmers face is unpredictable pricing based on the volatile commodity market. Through sharing the real revenue generated by the farmer’s product, THRIVE Farmers creates a predictable, stable, and higher price. These relationships support farmers and allow them to continue farming and enjoy a thriving and sustainable livelihood for their families and communities. <br /><br />“The B Corp community is a global movement of people using business as a force for good. THRIVE Farmers was born to empower farmers by connecting them to the real value of their work. It is an honor to join B Corp to and be a force for a more inclusive economy and connecting farmers as true stakeholders and partners,” Lander says. <br /><br />Working with farmers around the world globally informs THRIVE Farmers’ global perspective on what it takes to make a truly sustainable product. Based on the belief that quality products can only be sustainable when sourced from solid social and economic foundations through partnership with farmers, THRIVE Farmers encourages consumers and conscious companies to use everyday purchasing to create a lasting, positive impact. <br /><br />“As a Certified B Corp, THRIVE is leading by example and showing the world how business can be used as a force for good,” Ben Anderson, director of the B Corp Team, says. “Its mission to empower businesses to create positive impact with their purchasing decisions inspires others to not only be best in the world, but the best for the world."Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-20042328467314969232017-02-08T07:27:00.001-08:002017-02-08T07:27:19.593-08:00St. Jude and Target Continue Partnership to Help Sick Children St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital recently announced a partnership—one that has impacted the lives of thousands of children and their families who have turned to St. Jude for treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. That partnership is with Target Corporation— a model of corporate responsibility. For 20 years, Target’s leaders, team members, and guests have whole-heartedly embraced the lifesaving mission of St. Jude—and have become members of the St. Jude family. <br />This dedication began in 1996, when Target made a commitment to design and built a residence for the patients and families of St. Jude. St. Jude Target House would not be just any housing facility, but a true home-away-from-home for families undergoing the toughest times of their lives. <br /><br />Thanks to support of partners like Target, families never receive a bill from St. Jude—not for treatment, travel, housing, or food—because we believe all a family should worry about is helping their child live. And St. Jude Target House provides that home for 98 families at a time—families whose children need to be treated at St. Jude for longer than 90 days. Sometimes that treatment can stretch upwards of three years. <br /><br />Consider this: Since St. Jude Target House opened in 1999, more than 4,500 families from 45 states and 47 countries and territories have called the facility their home. <br /><br />For these families, what is just as important as having a roof over their heads is the sense of normalcy that St. Jude Target House provides while their children undergo treatment as well as a special sense of community, where families sharing similar experiences can bond and provide support for one another. <br /><br />That community is also celebrated by Target throughout the year with carnivals and parties that help create memories and experiences for the patients and families of St. Jude. <br /><br />And Target’s commitment extends beyond support of St. Jude Target House. During its partnership with St. Jude, Target has been involved in the annual St. Jude Thanks and Giving® campaign and served as a sponsor of such events as the St. Jude Walk/Run to End Childhood Cancer, which takes place during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in September.<br /><br />Since 2009, Target has sponsored 25 key fundraising events, including the Fall Festival of Hope and the Red Carpet for Hope, both in Minneapolis where Target is headquartered. <br /><br />These sponsorships and the millions of dollars raised by Target since the partnership began help support the groundbreaking research and treatment at St. Jude, treatment that has increased the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to more than 80 percent today. With the help of partners like Target, we won’t stop until no child dies of cancer. <br /><br />At the heart of this dedication to St. Jude are the hearts of every Target team member. These&nbsp; employees from around the country readily give of their time, talents, and energy to volunteer at St. Jude events and help raise the funds and awareness needed to support the mission. <br /><br />Danny Thomas, the founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, dreamed of a day when no child would die in the dawn of life. Partnerships like the one between Target Corporation and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital illustrate the great good that can be done when people work together toward a common dream—a day when cancer no longer takes the life of any child.<br /><br /><i>—Richard Shadyac, Jr., president and CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital </i><br /><br /> Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-38049980685624676992017-02-07T06:51:00.001-08:002017-02-07T12:11:52.644-08:00Target's New Chemical Strategy: A Q&A with its Chief Sustainabity OfficerTarget recently announced its new chemical strategy—committed to to driving transparency, proactive chemical management, and innovation across all of the company’s owned and national brand consumer products and operations.<br /><br />This new strategy will: strive for full visibility of chemicals contained in or used to make products Target sells and uses in operations; work with business partners to implement policies, practices and tools that facilitate the management of chemicals throughout the supply chain and across operations; and pursue and promote new approaches to chemical development and safer alternatives.<br /><br />The goals of the strategy are to:<br /><ul><li>Achieve transparency to all ingredients including generics by 2020;</li><li>Improve products by formulating without phthalates, propylparaben, butyl-paraben, formaldehyde, formaldehyde-donors, or NPE’s by 2020;</li><li>Improve textile products by removing added Perfluorinated Chemicals from products by 2022;</li><li>Improve textile products by removing added flame retardants that are potential carcinogens or pose harm by 2022; and</li><li>Invest up to $5 million in green chemistry innovation by 2022.&nbsp;</li></ul><i>CR Magazine</i> asked Jennifer Silberman, chief sustainability officer at Target, about the new chemical strategy and the company's goals.<br /><br /><b><i>CR Magazine: </i>Why did Target decide to address chemicals in products? Were there requests from customers?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>Jennifer Silberman: </b>At Target, we know our guests care about what is in their products and trust us to provide better choices for them and their families. They are becoming increasingly concerned with chemicals in products they use in, on, or around their bodies. According to NMI’s 2016 Sustainability report, 66 percent of U.S. consumers are interested in socially and/or environmentally better products.<br /><br />We’ve also been seeing category sales growth coming from better-for-you products. We believe that by driving chemical transparency, proactive chemical management and innovation across all of our product categories and operations, we can help reduce unwanted substances from homes and workplaces of millions of our guests and people who make our products. <br /><b><br /></b><b><i>CR: </i>Why is it so important to address the issue of these unwanted chemicals and their potential health impact?</b><br /><br /><b>JS: </b>We believe all guests and their families should have access to better-for-you products in their homes and workplaces. Making an informed choice about the products we manufacture and sell should be simple. Our comprehensive strategy is designed to give guests greater peace of mind and confidence in their purchases at the store and beyond. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>How will you achieve transparency of all ingredients? How specifically are you looking at your supply chains?</b><br /><br /><b>JS: </b>Our close collaboration with our vendors is critical to ensuring compliance throughout the supply chain. A key part of this process will involve providing feedback and constant communication every step of the way to ensure collaboration and positive impact.<br /><br />We already have a good start with our Sustainable Product Index (SPI)—a tool we developed in partnership with industry experts, vendors and NGOs, to help establish a common language, definition and process for increased transparency and qualifying what makes a product more sustainable. As part of this commitment to transparency, we are asking all of our vendors not yet participating in our Sustainable Product Index to be compliant by 2018. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>Why is green chemistry so important in product development?</b><br /><br /><b>JS: </b>Through our commitment to innovation, we are uniquely seeking to invest resources and expertise to identify and catalyze safer chemical alternatives, where no viable substitutions currently exist. For example, our work during the GC3 Preservatives Challenge has helped to advance greener chemistry in beauty and personal care products. We will actively engage with NGOs, associations and industry partners to innovate and promote a consistent approach to greener chemistry. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>Do you believe Target leads the way in these sustainable efforts?</b><br /><br /><b>JS: </b>Target’s holistic approach of evaluating all product categories and operations—from cleansers to clothes—is a first of its kind in retail. In addition, our chemical policy evaluates process chemicals, or chemicals used in the process of making the product, not just those that are found in the product. Our commitments are driven by collaboration, and we hope that our robust approach will accelerate similar efforts across the industry. We look forward to partnering with supply chain partners, vendors and other organizations on our unique innovation-inspired goals to work toward finding safer alternatives to unwanted chemicals, ultimately enhancing the health and well-being of millions of guests. Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-72611809048986058812017-02-02T12:45:00.000-08:002017-02-02T12:45:41.848-08:00A Culture of Giving: Smithfield Foods Expands 'Helping Hungry Homes' ProgramDennis Pittman is the senior director of hunger relief for Smithfield Foods, the world's largest hog producer and pork processor. In this role, he leads the company's hunger relief efforts, including Helping Hungry Homes®, an initiative to fight hunger and help Americans become more food secure. Established in 2008, Helping Hungry Homes provides high-quality, nutritious protein to food banks across the country and raises awareness of hunger. To date, the initiative has provided more than 49 million servings of protein to food banks located from coast-to-coast.<br /><br /><i>CR Magazine </i>recently spoke with Pittman about Smithfield's philanthropic initiatives.&nbsp; <br /><br /><b><i>CR Magazine: </i>How does Smithfield Foods’ Helping Hungry Homes initiative strive to address the issue of hunger and food insecurity in the United States? </b><br /><br /><b>Dennis Pittman:</b> At Smithfield Foods, it’s our business to feed people. We value our responsibility as a global food company to address hunger and improve food security. Each year, Helping Hungry Homes launches a nationwide food donation tour, giving millions of pounds of protein to communities across the country. Along the way, we partner with local retailers, civic leaders and other stakeholders who share our passion to fight for additional support and generate greater awareness of hunger at the local level.<br /><br />This year, we launched a new, interactive website to engage our employees, retailers, and others in the Helping Hungry Homes initiative. The website, <a href="http://www.helpinghungryhomes.com/">www.helpinghungryhomes.com</a>, provides information about where the tour has recently visited, where it’s going next and the impact we’ve made on our communities across the nation. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>What have been food banks’ responses to this initiative?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>Protein is a much-needed and often difficult to acquire resource. It’s a staple for a nutritious, balanced meal. It can also be one of the costlier parts of a meal. The food banks have shared with us that for this reason, our protein donations make a significant impact on these communities. The food banks that we have worked with have also shared that they are grateful for our role in raising awareness of food insecurity. With each donation, Helping Hungry Homes engages local stakeholders during a media event, allowing news outlets to spread information about hunger at the local level. These events encourage the community to get involved by donating to or volunteering with their local food bank. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>Helping Hungry Homes has grown from a brand-led to a company-wide initiative. How has this growth better positioned the program to achieve its mission?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>When Helping Hungry Homes was launched in 2008, it was led by the Smithfield brand. Over the years, the initiative has expanded significantly. This year, it has grown into a company-wide program and will donate protein to local food banks throughout the nation. Now, Smithfield Foods’ entire family of brands including Smithfield, Eckrich and Nathan's Famous, and its more than 40,000 employees in more than 40 locations across the country are part of this signature philanthropic endeavor. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>Why is this initiative important to Smithfield Foods?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>According to the United States Department of Agriculture, nearly 42 million Americans are food insecure. This means that one in eight people in our country do not know where their next meal will come from. At Smithfield Foods, we understand the benefits of proper nutrition and believe it is our responsibility to help our neighbors in need. Through Helping Hungry Homes, we are able to do our part to help provide countless families with proper nutrition they need. By helping meet this need, we are able to play a role in strengthening the local communities, in which we do business and where our employees live and work. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>In 2017, this initiative will visit cities with Smithfield Foods locations. Why was this an important factor to consider for Smithfield Foods?</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>Our employees share a passion to feed people and serve their communities. With this in mind, we’re putting an even greater focus on the communities that we call home. In 2017, Helping Hungry Homes donation stops will visit cities where Smithfield Foods has a facility, farm or office. By targeting these areas, we are able to give back to the communities in which our employees live and work, while further engaging our people in the fight against hunger. When Helping Hungry Homes® visits an area, employees are encouraged to host employee-led food drives of non-perishable items, attend the donation event and seek volunteer opportunities with their local food bank. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>How does it feel to be leading by example in corporate giving?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>At Smithfield Foods, we understand that our people are our greatest asset and the vitality of their communities are a priority. Smithfield Foods could not constantly improve or expand our corporate giving programs without the help of our employees who share our passion for feeding people. Through programs like Helping Hungry Homes, we are able to give back to our neighbors and communities across the country. While we have accomplished a great deal in our fight against hunger, we know there is still much to do. We hope our work continues to inspire others to join our fight in addressing hunger and improving food security. <br /><br /><b><i>CR: </i>How would Smithfield Foods recommend other companies look at improving their giving processes?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>DP: </b>A successful giving program requires support from every level of the company, starting at the top. Kenneth Sullivan, president and CEO of Smithfield Foods, is a visionary leader committed to improving food security and addressing hunger while fulfilling our mission to produce good food the right way. This is important because all philanthropic efforts should align with a company’s mission. Our giving endeavors, part of efforts to support the communities where our employees live and work, are part of a core pillar of our sustainability program.<br /><br />Along with Helping Communities, our sustainability efforts focus on animal care, environment, food safety and quality and our people. Speaking of our people, the success of Helping Hungry Homes would not be possible without our passionate employees. The Smithfield Foods family is a driving force behind this program. At each donation stop, our employees and retailers are encouraged to take an active role in the fight against hunger. Together, we are proud to be making a significant impact on the fight against hunger. Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-1354855784369064292017-02-01T12:52:00.002-08:002017-02-03T08:31:13.163-08:00Five Factors to Consider in Managing Global RiskFor companies both large and small, managing expectations regarding receivables is essential. From late payments to ultimately writing off bad debt, the pain spectrum can run wide. Staying on top of your customers’ normal payment practices, changes in payment terms, and potentially significant underlying factors in their businesses is no easy task, yet this responsibility is crucial to the sustainability of a healthy company in a global supply chain. <br /><br />Fortunately, with good optics, companies can safely manage their exports and capitalize on emerging markets while minimizing the risk of bad debts. <br /><br /><b>Customer transparency. </b>Monitoring financial statements and available banking information frequently, even sometimes quarterly, is essential. Plan on reviewing income statements, balance sheets and, in particular, cash flow statements and projections to determine a customer’s ability to generate cash flow. <br /><br /><b>Market knowledge.</b> When entering into a new customer relationship, invest time and resources to learn local commercial regulations, accounting and legal practices as well as other cultural issues that could influence remittances and, if needed, the ability to access effective collection services. <br /><br /><b>Financing partners.</b> Check the bank’s ability to manage the legal requirements of buying receivables in a certain country as well as supporting offsets such as credit/debit memos. Banks may be unwilling to buy receivables from the types of customers you target (e.g., geography, currency, payment term, credit risk). Has it taken a long time for a bank to include a customer in the system? That may be a red flag. <br /><br /><b>Understand costs</b>. Make sure you are well aware of any hidden costs, such as delayed on-boarding and participation, UCC filings in the U.S. or legal fees. There also might be costs associated with the supply chain process, such as order-to-cash, source-to-pay or settle-to-fulfill, or technology, including constructing software infrastructure, adopting new applications and re-engineering existing IT systems. <br /><br /><b>Flexibility and trust. </b>With evolving trade circumstances, flexibility is essential in the supply chain. How far will a customer go to circumvent supply chain risk? Also, trust must be established to ensure each party in the sale will do everything possible to meet their obligations and timelines and, thus, maintain cash flows. Do you have the trust and support of your customer’s chief purchasing officer and commitment from the executive team? <br /><a href="http://atradius.us/" target="_blank"><br /></a><i><a href="http://atradius.us/" target="_blank">Atradius Trade Credit Insurance</a> is a global provider of trade credit insurance, surety and debt collection services with a presence in every continent. Their teams of analysts monitor countries, regions, governments and individual companies to help deliver competitive intelligence related to emerging markets and associated trade risks. </i><br /><br /><i>—Doug Collins, vice president and regional director of risk services - Americas, Atradius</i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-71972573073718745852017-01-31T07:07:00.001-08:002017-01-31T07:07:14.916-08:00#RBSNY: Driving the Movement for Responsible Business <i>CR Magazine </i>plans to<i> </i>attend Ethical Corporation's Fifth Responsible Business Summit NY - an event focused on driving the movement for responsible business, CR, and sustainability execs to link purpose to profit.<br /><br />The summit will take place March 27-28, 2017, at the Brooklyn Marriott Hotel, offering three focused tracks all shaped to uncover the real potential for CR to drive profit, accelerate growth and change culture.<br /><br /><i>CR magazine </i>spoke with Krina Amin, head of strategy at Ethical Corporation, about the summit and what it means for sustainability and CR today. <br /><br /><b>CR: Why are events—like the Responsible Business Summit—important for CR professionals to attend today?</b><br /><br /><b>Krina Amin</b>: #RBSNY will give the most senior networking opportunity possible. We lead our conferences with the newest ideas and case studies out there, and take pride in our in-depth research to pinpoint the brands that are doing the most impactful work to share their learnings. In our most senior line-up to date, we have the largest number of CEOs and leaders sharing their responsible business vision from North America's most inspiring and innovative brands.<br /><i><br /></i><b>CR: Can you explain how the summit will discuss how CR drives profit and shapes strategy?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>KA:</b> We’re not afraid to talk about what doesn’t work as much as what does! Sessions are practical with live polling and interactive questions driven help you implement ideas into real life steps.<br /><b><br /></b><b>CR: How can CR accelerate growth, change culture and drive purpose?&nbsp;</b><br /><br /><b>KA: </b>Through effectively delivering the business case, gathering the right data and pitching this to the right people. Corporate fluff is not enough. CR need to evidence their work and show that this can help business profits and contribute to a holistic sustainable business model <br /><br />Companies attending the event include Coca Cola, Heineken, HSBC, Salesforce, Bacardi, Oracle, The New York Times, Vita Coco, Dell, Adobe, Salesforce, Bloomberg, VF Corporation, and more. Topics include how to:<br /><ul><li><b>Use data innovation to make the business case</b>: How PepsiCo’s senior director of sustainability reporting transforms data capabilities to drive the CSR agenda;</li><li><b>Secure funding for CR:</b>&nbsp;Hear Metlife’s vice president of communications sells his findings to secure CR buy in and ensure the right senior people get the right message;</li><li><b>Accelerate growth through technology</b>: How Fossil Group’s vice president and global head of sustainability turns environmental waste into new revenue streams in the latest circular economy opportunities; </li><li><b>Measure employee engagement</b>: How Timberland engages employees with the right sell; and</li><li><b>Succeed in partnerships</b>: PYXERA Global’s CEO judges a live 'Partnership X-factor' on how transformative partnerships can be.</li></ul>Adminnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-43892241462506607462017-01-25T09:29:00.001-08:002017-01-25T09:32:54.875-08:00Leveraging Community Relations Involvement to Build Leadership SkillsUpon graduating from the University of Florida, one of my bosses and mentors (Kathy Fleming), encouraged me to get involved in the community because it would help broaden my skills and experiences as a public relations professional. I got involved with the American Cancer Society (ACS) and the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) shortly after our discussion.<br /><br />So, when my first crisis management situation occurred at the Florida Museum of Natural History, I was prepared to deal with more than 150 police officers in riot uniforms, the museum’s leadership, and over 60 Native American Indian protestors who were led by Russell Means (American Indian Movement founder and “Last of the Mohicans” star). Without the leadership skills built as a volunteer, we might not have turned the protest around in a peaceful manner. Since then, I have made it a point to be involved with nonprofits nationally and internationally to expand my skills and understanding of various topics. The experiences and knowledge gained have been profound and eventually led to me becoming an HR and diversity leader. <br /><br />Over the years, I have helped coach and get other people involved with non-profits and on boards. It has been amazing to watch them build their confidence by finding their voice and grow professionally as speakers, people leaders, project managers, and advocates on community issues. In addition, I have worked with companies to build community programs connected to corporate diversity, talent development, and community relations initiatives. Some companies didn’t realize— until faced with major employment or environmental challenges in their communities—the power of employee involvement and advocacy. While these companies had established relationships through their community relations offices, they had not connected their efforts with the talent management or diversity office but rather were relying only on senior executives for involvement. <br /><br />Once the companies realized that by partnering with the talent or diversity offices they could tap a whole new group of volunteers and future leaders, it opened a new world of possibilities. By engaging employee resource group/business resource group (ERG/BRG) leaders or high potentials in nonprofit volunteer activities, these employees could develop leadership skills while making a difference in the community and advancing the companies’ philanthropic efforts. The companies not only benefited from the employees serving as spokespeople, advocates, or knowledge experts; the employees developed critical skills that were transferable into everyday management/leadership roles like diplomacy, speaking to groups, listening, managing large scale projects or organizational budgets, etc. <br /><br />If you are interested in helping to grow the leadership skills of your employees while having an impact in the community, the content that follows will help you get started. Here are some foundational steps you can take to help build high potential leaders through community involvement programs: <br /><br />• <b>Who to Engage in the Discussion:</b> You will want to form a small committee that consists of a senior executive sponsor and representatives from the talent management, community relations, and diversity office. These individuals can be part of your working committee. You will want to start with a small group of high potentials which will be matched to those nonprofit organizations the company is already committed to financially. It will be critical to match the employees to causes that they may be interested in as well. You can also look at engaging ERG/BRG leaders to serve on local nonprofits but my recommendation is that you start with a small group of high potentials and build from there. <br /><br />• <b>Establish a Process for Selecting Candidates: </b>There are three possible groups of employees to engage in community leadership roles. The three groups include:<br />a) Senior executives already in place but who could benefit from being involved with a community cause to soften their leadership skills; <br />b) High Potentials, these are the upcoming leaders in the company who have strong management skills but may need to develop in other areas like coalition building, influencing skills, public speaking or people management skills; and<br />c) ERG/BRG leaders who are in the frontline or middle management these people may not be identified as High Potential but show leadership skills.<br />For the most part we will focus in this article on developing high potentials because this is the group that could generate the highest ROI personally and professionally and the company has already determined they are the next generation of managers, directors or vice presidents. <br /><br />• <b>Select the Nonprofit Partners and Assess the Financial Commitment: </b>The community relations or corporate foundation needs to identify the non-profits that best align with the company’s core values and which will provide a stretch assignment for the employees to serve on the board or lead a project with. Identify seven to 10 nonprofits, these should be ones that the company already has a financial commitment of $10K to $100K+. The larger the non-profit the greater the financial commitment will be. I would recommend focusing on non-profits that you have a $15K to $45K financial commitment with and which the company has partnered with for at least two years. So, identify which areas you will focus on (i.e. education, human services, engineering talent, sustainability, etc.). Once you identify the organizations you are going to partner with you will want to engage them in a conversation to determine their board selection process. <br /><br />• <b>How to Prep Individuals:</b> You will need to prepare your candidates by briefing them on past donations and activities supported by your company. Get their input on what nonprofits they may be most interested in. You will need to match your candidates to the nonprofits and give the candidates an opportunity to connect with the nonprofit board. The employee/candidate needs to be prepared to also make a time commitment to the nonprofit by attending meetings and activities, as well as taking on an active role in the organization. From a corporate perspective, the company will need financially support the employee who accepts the board role, and provide guidance on what activities will and won’t be supported. <br /><br /><b>• What is ROI? What Goals Should You Set: </b>There are two types of ROIs you should consider when trying to measure the success of the program. First, think about the leadership skills that you would like the employee to develop through his/her involvement in the nonprofit. Align these expectations with their performance goals. Secondly, think through the kind of partnership you would like to build with the nonprofit and the kinds of activities you will support. For example, if you are trying to increase the company’s number of minority engineers, then how will the relationship with the non-profit help you meet that goal or objective. Will you host events in partnership with the nonprofit; will you launch a mentoring program or internship program to attract more engineers? You will want to align your relationship with the nonprofit and HR objectives or business goals. <br /><br /><b>Sources:&nbsp;</b><br />• Center for Nonprofit Management: <a href="http://www.cnm.org/" target="_blank">http://www.cnm.org/&nbsp;</a><br />• Boston College Community Involvement Road Map: <a href="https://bc-ccc.uberflip.com/i/610740-community-involvement-roadmap">https://bc-ccc.uberflip.com/i/610740-community-involvement-roadmap</a><br />• Boundary Spanning Leadership Center for Creative Leadership: <a href="http://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/BoundarySpanningLeadership.pdf">www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/BoundarySpanningLeadership.pdf</a><br />• Nonprofit Leadership Development: A model for identifying and growing leaders within the nonprofit sector. Dewey &amp; Kaye: <a href="http://www.deweykaye.com/assets/documents/DK_NonprofitLeadershipStudy.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.deweykaye.com/assets/documents/DK_NonprofitLeadershipStudy.pdf&nbsp;</a><br />• Boston College Studies and Resources on community involvement; <a href="http://ccc.bc.edu/index.cfm?pageId=2180" target="_blank">http://ccc.bc.edu/index.cfm?pageId=2180&nbsp;</a><br /><br /><i>&nbsp;—Nereida (Neddy) Perez&nbsp; </i><br /><br /><i>Neddy Perez is a principal of D&amp;I Creative Solutions and an industry thoughtleader in talent management and diversity &amp; inclusion. Visit <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/neddyperez">www.linkedin.com/in/neddyperez</a> or <a href="http://www.dicreativesolutions.com./">www.dicreativesolutions.com.</a></i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-23110110713742169172017-01-12T09:45:00.002-08:002017-01-12T09:45:16.794-08:00Private Sector Leadership and Green Bond Potential in BrazilWith the future of the Paris climate agreement increasingly tentative, momentum toward greenhouse gas mitigation will continue in other ways. New financial products, such as “green bonds,” which unleash market forces to protect the environment, have grown rapidly, and have great potential. <br /><br />Much of that growth has been in developed markets. Over the past few months, however, Brazil has taken critical steps toward accelerating green bond growth, indicating a more active future for Latin America and developing countries in promoting market-based climate initiatives. <br /><br />The U.S. is currently the largest issuing country to date, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative, with about 16% of the roughly $694 billion global market. Apart from major issuer China, developing countries have a very small share of issuance, with Latin America at less than 1%. <br /><br />Itaú Unibanco, Latin America’s largest bank by market value, is working with partners to change this. They see enormous green bond potential for Brazil—and progress there could encourage other developing countries with similar profiles. Brazil has about 59 million metric tons of carbon stored in its forests, approximately 70% of Latin America's installed wind power capacity, and around 6 million hectares of responsibly-managed forests (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council).<br /><br />Private sector leaders, such as Itau, are developing an ecosystem for green bond issuance to thrive. Itau Asset Management recently joined with a handful of other major banks operating in Brazil to sign the “Brazil Green Bonds Statement.” The statement, agreed by banks managing combined assets of nearly $500 billion, reflects its collective belief in the risk climate change poses to society and our commitment to foster a low-carbon economy. <br /><br />As part of this initiative, Itau Asset Management will dialogue with other banks, with governments, and with international organizations to develop this market. They will also drive momentum toward the elements of a successful marketplace, including independent eligibility criteria for green bond issuance and increased transparency among issuers on the use of proceeds. Other key organizations in Brazil are also building support for the green bonds movement. Joint actions such as that of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN), the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), and the Climate Bonds Initiative, which launched the Guide for Issuance of Green Securities in Brazil, build awareness, support and encourage issuers. <br /><br />Total green bond issuance in 2016 was at $81 billion, more doubling from the year prior, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative. By 2018, global issuance could reach $300 billion. As Brazil—and Latin America more broadly—build infrastructure around green bonds, and raise awareness, they will capture an increasing percentage of this market. <br /><br />Educating investors—both retail and institutional—is critical. Environmental, social, and corporate governance issues are not just about philanthropy and citizenship; they are critical to the value of our investments, and thus the investment process. Responsible investing generates value for clients by identifying growth opportunities and reducing risk. <br /><br /><i>—Tatiana Grecco, Head of Portfolio Solutions at Itaú Asset Management </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-27228417124464987742017-01-09T10:27:00.001-08:002017-01-09T10:30:37.308-08:00Clorox and AOL's Safe Water Project and 360 Video Partnership<i>Virtual Reality Brings Issue of Safe Water to Life in a New Clorox and AOL Video&nbsp;</i><br /><br />Safe water is foundational. Yet one in seven people in Peru do not have access to it. Around the world, approximately 88 percent of deaths due to diarrheal illness are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Diarrheal diseases kill more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined, making it the second leading cause of death among children under five years old. <br /><br />However, unsafe drinking water still seems like a far-away issue for most people in the United States, where water safety is not typically an everyday concern. The good news is that emerging technologies like VR and 360 video present incredible opportunity for inspiring social good. Clorox is harnessing this power to bring the issue of unsafe drinking water to life. <br /><br />Tackling the global issue of unsafe water can seem daunting and there are many clean water processes and infrastructures in place to solve this problem, some coming with large costs and multiple moving parts. However, there is actually a simple, cost-effective, scalable and easily adoptable way to kill bacteria and viruses in water—a few drops of bleach. Through The Safe Water Project, Clorox is leading an effort to address the chronic problem of unsafe water. The Safe Water Project’s bleach dispenser model provides a simple, affordable water treatment solution for use in areas where people collect water from an untreated, communal water source. <br /><br />Clorox and HuffPost RYOT Studios partnered to create a 360 video allowing viewers to immerse themselves in a community in Peru that has benefitted from The Safe Water Project. As part of the experience, viewers are guided by one of the community leaders, Bernadina, and shown a surprisingly simple solution—using bleach to purify water. Clorox Bleach kills 99.9 percent of bacteria and viruses in water like cholera, so it is a viable and important solution even for parts of the world that lack any infrastructure.<br /><br />Since The Safe Water Project launched, there have been strong results, with more than 60 percent of community households treating their water with bleach and over 350,000 liters of water a day being purified. <br /><br />Leveraging AOL’s network, which reaches more than 500 million global consumers, this short film, titled “Purely Peru,” showcases how VR can be used for global storytelling and social good. Through this partnership, Clorox and AOL are creating a fresh new dialogue around how brands can engage with their audiences about important issues. <br /><br />The 360 video is accessible across screens on the HuffPost RYOT app, YouTube 360 or through a VR headset; viewers can make a donation straight from their devices. Visit <a href="http://ryot.huffingtonpost.com/purely-peru/">http://ryot.huffingtonpost.com/purely-peru/</a>. Visit <a href="http://www.clorox.com/TheSafeWaterProject">www.Clorox.com/TheSafeWaterProject</a> to learn more. <br /><i><br /></i><i>—Gabriele Amtmann, associate director of marketing, The Clorox Company </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-32668675879049581882017-01-05T12:02:00.001-08:002017-01-06T09:55:46.300-08:00Corporate Responsibility: A 2017 Outlook When it comes to the social sector, philanthropy, giving back, helping others, improving our communities and our planet—however it’s defined—we are seeing clear and positive trends. In 2015, charitable donations hit a record for a second year in a row at an estimated $373.25 billion, corporate giving reached $18.45 billion, an increase of 3.9 percent year-over-year (YoY), and employee participation in their companies’ community efforts has continued to rise, and last year reached 33 percent. <br /><br />How will this story continue to unfold? Here are some predictions for 2017: <br /><br /><b>Profit + Purpose.</b> We’re likely to see the acceleration of aligning corporate philosophies and sales goals to better meet the needs of underserved populations and to address major global issues, such as noncommunicable diseases, climate change, and poverty. Examples of this include CVS Health’s decision to discontinue tobacco sales, Subaru’s commitment to building fuel-efficient vehicles in eco-friendly plants, and Prudential’s focus on financially empowering underserved communities. <br /><b><br /></b><b>The Impact of Corporate Responsibility on the Bottom Line. </b>Similarly, we’ll see greater investor interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, which will cause the C-suite to further incorporate corporate giving and employee engagement as core components of a strong business strategy. Not only is this the right thing to do, but studies increasingly show a direct link between CR initiatives and greater profitability, higher investment value, and employee recruitment and retention. <br /><br /><b>The Expanding Role of HR</b>. The 2016 Cone Communications Employee Engagement Study found that 51 percent of employees won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments, and that 74 percent are more fulfilled when they are provided opportunities to make a positive impact at work. As such, CR initiatives will become increasingly integrated with HR efforts around employee recruitment, engagement and retention efforts. It’s critical that HR be able to communicate and present defined social programs and campaigns that both current and prospective employees can feel good about. <br /><b><br /></b><b>The Rise of Human Social Responsibility.</b>Employees are increasingly looking for a greater diversity of options for giving back and supporting causes. Organizations need to listen to their employees more and take cues from them. It’s a shift in mindset from Corporate Social Responsibility to what corporate citizenship and philanthropy expert Rachel Hutchisson has coined as Human Social Responsibility, where organizations, as conveners of people, will take their lead from their employees and their individual human social contracts. This will result in more organizations looking for ways to support employees’ causes within the broader scope of their CR programs, incorporate giving and volunteering that employees do on their own time into these programs, and encouraging skills-based volunteering as a dual employee development and community investment tool. <br /><br /><b>Measurement, Storytelling and Breaking Silos. </b>The importance of measurement will continue to grow in 2017. We will see continued demand for measuring and reporting the results of grants, community partnerships, and employee programs. Also, aligning results with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will gain more attention and will factor into storytelling, particularly with the growing importance of public-private partnerships in business. In the end, organizations must have the infrastructure in place to connect the dots on measurement, impact and storytelling across the entirety of their CR, Sustainability, PR, Marketing, HR, and IR efforts. <br /><br /><b>Technology.</b>In order to facilitate more employee participation, build better partnerships and support increasingly robust reporting requirements, CR software will continue to grow in importance as a core enterprise technology need. To meet the demands of their stakeholders, corporations need a technology platform from which to organize their employee giving and volunteering, tie all of their disparate CR efforts together, measure and report on their efforts, and tell their impact stories. And just as the private sector has adopted cloud-based and mobile solutions to manage other aspects of the business, CR will continue to follow. <br /><br />The notion of corporate responsibility has evolved beyond traditional “checkbook philanthropy”— where checks were written each year to disparate causes and organizations; employees likely didn’t participate in or even know about these donations; and no one ever knew what that money actually did. Today, CR is transforming to become results-based, impact-focused, and inclusive to engage employees in ways that are meaningful to them. Companies and employees want their efforts to have an impact, and they want to know what that impact is. <br /><br />In the year ahead, we’ll see organizations diversify their CSR efforts to create stronger, more engaging programs. Measurement will be crucial to a company’s ability to share its impact story with the people and organizations they help, as well as their customers, employees, boards, investors and other stakeholders. And perhaps, these impact stories will even inspire greater participation in causes and campaigns that will help build a better world.<br /><br /><i>— Jamie Serino, director of marketing, MicroEdge + Blackbaud </i>Adminnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5859598382231199526.post-47408863706223075902017-01-03T06:46:00.000-08:002017-01-03T06:46:51.381-08:00Responsible Reporting: Five Tips for your CSR Report in the New YearCurrently, companies are compiling data and information for their 2016 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. Here are five tips to get the most value, and to manage risk associated with CSR reporting. These tips will also help embed CSR thinking into all levels in your organization. <br /><br />Here are the five tips reviewed in this here:<br />1. Determine what is material for your organization<br />2. Don’t stop with materiality<br />3. Compare your reporting parameters with other companies’<br />4. If you can’t support it, don’t report it<br />5. Use this year’s gaps to plan for next year <br /><br /><b>1. Determine what is material for your organization</b>. Materiality is now an essential part of CSR reporting. Within just the last five years, this push came from Global Reporting Institute, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board—and even the Securities and Exchange Commission. Materiality has been used in financial reporting for decades; even so, there is still some disagreement (including between auditors and their clients) as to what is “material.” There are several standard risk management frameworks that provide guidance on identifying highest risk areas. Two frameworks are ISO 31000, or COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management framework. Service providers may claim to have the unique way to determine materiality. However, there is no single, “correct” way to perform materiality analysis for CSR reporting parameters. Use an approach that incorporates standard risk assessment principles. As with any other emerging issue, this will be revised over time, so just make sure you document what you did, and your rationale for doing so. <br /><br /><b>2. Don’t stop with materiality.</b> Materiality is a concept that allows organizations to focus on what matters the most. The challenge with materiality as applied to CSR is: material to whom? Many CSR materiality discussions are driven by the needs of the investment community. One prominent framework proposes six to eight CSR parameters as being “material” for inclusion in financial filings. Does this mean that companies should not report on other parameters? <br /><br />Other issues can still matter to key organizational stakeholders. Some CSR issues may include regulatory requirements, with information already a matter of public record via reports submitted to agencies. Some CSR parameters can enhance an organization’s reputation. Other parameters could be standard practice for some key stakeholders. For example, an organization with locations in some cities may be expected to have programs that encourage ridesharing or cycling to work. A company with any presence in drought-stricken Southwest would be expected to conserve water. If the organization does not include these parameters in CSR reports, it can send the wrong signal to prospective employees, neighbors, or other key stakeholders. <br /><b><br /></b><b>3. Compare your sustainability reporting parameters to other companies’.</b> Investors and other stakeholders are comparing your CSR reports to other companies’. Shouldn’t you? Organizations can learn much by reviewing CSR reports of financial peers to see what they report on, and how much detail they provide. Many CSR performance issues are now being embedded into requirements of the supply chain. It is also useful to compare your CSR report to those of key customers. You can select other companies to get traction with the executives who provide you with resources. If there is an executive at your company who is relatively new, compare your CSR report to the one of their prior company. The C-suite should want their new organization’s CSR report to be at least as good as the company they just left. <br /><br /><b>4. If you can’t support it, don’t report it.</b> Stakeholders use the social and environmental information in CSR reports to help them make many decisions, such as: whether buy or sell your stock; whether to add or retain you as a vendor; or whether to work for your organization. These decisions can have direct financial impact on your organization. Other consequences can include how easily you can obtain permits to expand operation, or effects on your brand’s reputation. Stakeholders can find out if you report data that is incorrect or unsupported. Media can provide coverage, and social media is quick to spread opinions about these errors. The rigor of data collection and management for CSR information doesn’t match that for financial reporting. After all, financial reporting has a head start of several decades! There are valid reasons for data inconsistencies and errors: different units of measure; different reporting periods; or simple lack of data. Reporting invalid data is worse than not reporting data at all. <br /><br /><b>5. Use this year’s gaps to plan for next year.</b> It is common to want to present only the good stuff in CSR reports. It’s also common to present only the good stuff to senior management. This can backfire on your CSR program. Most CSR reports are signed by an executive. Use this as an opportunity to get the resources you need for next year. Nobody has all the CSR data and information they would like for their CSR reports. Many stakeholders respect companies that are candid about their performance, including areas where they have fallen short. Senior management respects candor, too. Don’t hide the gaps. Consider the risks they pose to your organization. Develop a plan to address them, and estimate the resources you’ll need. When you get the sign-off on this year’s CSR report, ask senior management for what you need for next year’s CR efforts—so you can return with a more robust CSR report next year. <br /><br />—Douglas Hileman, CRMA, CPEA, President, Douglas Hileman Consulting LLC. www.douglashileman.com. Adminnoreply@blogger.com1